Since I've locked my league faction to Circle of Orboros, I wanted to take Cryx out for some fun and games. I've been wondering if it's any good to stack as much drag options to Cryx army as possible, plus other kinds of movement shenanigans. I guess I will be testing some aspects of the idea in 35 point games until I eventually play with a full 50 point list in Ropecon tournament later this year.
But enough with that. My list was:
Warwitch Deneghra
- Reaper
- 2x Nightwretch
Maximum unit of Black Ogruns
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
(Necrotech) & Scrap Thrall... funny thing, really. I made a big fuzz about remembering the Scrap Thrall and moving it around... yet I forgot to deploy Necrotech at all.
Pistol Wraith
Saxon Orrik
Gorman diWulfe
Madelyn Corbeau
Opponent had:
Forward Kommander Sorscha2
- Beast-09
Maximum unit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment + 2x Rocketeers
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Greylord Ternion
Kayazy Eliminators
Kovnik Joe
War Dog
Gorman diWulfe
Epic Eiryss
Scenario was Incursion. Cryx started, and didn't do much else other than running. Khador has Iron Flesh on the Winterguard Infantry. Cryx had just ran forward.
Turn 2 a Nightwretch ran into position to cast Crippling Grasp upon Winterguard Infantry. Idea here was that perhaps their DEF would became tolerable when combined with Crippling Grasp and Deneghra's feat. But first Deneghra needed to hit with the spell. And she hit.
Other than that Cryx turn was just positioning.
I was fairly sure I'd lose the Nightwretch who ran to cast spells on Winterguard, but much to my amazement it survived - but everything else died. I'm exaggerating of course, but I failed to see that if Beast-09 charged a black ogrun, my other Nightwretch would be within Beast's reach, too. So I lost both of the arcnodes in one turn. But that was not all. Combined ranged attack against Warwitch Siren killed her, and random sprays from Winterguard and Greylords killed all but one remaining Black Ogrun.
Before that Eiryss had shot off the Crippling Grasp - otherwise Winterguard wouldn't have been able to make special attacks. Kayazy Eliminators ran to rightmost flag.
Turn 3 situation is quite grim, but perhaps Deneghra's feat alone might turn the tide? Let's see. Deneghra activated, moved into base contact with center flag, used feat and sprayed all over the battlefield, and was left focusless. Deneghra failed to kill one of the greylords, and I was being paranoid about Sorscha's feat. You know... it just might happen that one magic skill 7 and POW 12 would kill Deneghra. After all it required only a damage roll of 10.
Then Saxon Orrik gives pathfinder for Bane Thralls. Then it looks difficult to get one Bane Thrall into contact with Beast-09, so Skarlock slaps Ghost Walk on them. A bit of a waste...
Gorman lobs blind grenade on a Kayazy Eliminator, and then Bane Thralls charge. They kill the Eliminator and injure Beast. Reaper has to come and finish the job on Beast, and luckily it did - otherwise I'd have a DEF 5 duck sitting in the middle of my army.
Instead of contesting left flag with Pistol Wraith, the ghostly solo advanced and shot the last remaining greylord very dead. Second initial attack dropped a Winterguard. Last Black Ogrun charged last Winterguard that might be contesting middle flag, and killed him. Scrap Thrall runs to engage a group of Winterguards.
There wasn't much to do for Khador. Sorscha advanced behind Great Bears of Gallowswood, and Winterguards formed a firing squad that removed last Black Ogrun and the Pistol Wraith. Kayazy Eliminator charged one bane thrall dead.
Turn 4 looked like I needed to assassinate now or never. First Gorman diWulfe advanced to throw blind oil on Sorscha, but was interrupted by counter charging War Dog.
Skarlock gave Ghost Walk for Bane Thralls, who then charged the War Dog dead. They also attempted the same to Great Bears, but failed miserably. Because Bane Thralls couldn't remove a bear who was blocking lane to Sorscha, I ditched the attempt to assassinate. Reaper just charged to destroy the bears, but it was just as efficient as Bane Thralls. Deneghra got scared of the upcoming sprayfest from Winter Guards, so she cast Ghost Walk on herself and abandoned the center flag. Now everything was left to fate.
Khadorans kill all the Bane Thralls and Skarlock. I don't remember how badly Reaper was mauled, but my guess is that pretty damn bad - possibly it's a proxy for wreck marker.
Gorman survives a shot by Eiryss. He takes only four points of damage. That's my Gorman! Key to my victory.
But then Sorscha advances and casts Cyclone and ends her turn at the flag on the right - just engaging Gorman. She also casts Iron Flesh on herself.
Turn 5 Deneghra kills Sorscha, slicing her steaming intestines to the ground while smiling sadistically, and Khadoran army covers in fear and flees away.
Well, at least in some parallel dimension. Since Skarlock died, Gorman had to take a free strike from Sorscha. He had expended all of his luck when facing Eiryss, so he just died. Then Deneghra needed to kill Sorscha all by herself. She didn't score even one hit.
Then Sorscha applies hammer to Deneghra's skull.
Game 2:
Second game I played with a little more refined list. I really don't understand why Saxon Orrik was in earlier list, when Deneghra has Ghost Walk. It seemed like a good idea at the time...
Anyway, my second list:
Warwitch Deneghra
- Reaper
- 2x Nightwretch
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
2x Warwitch Siren
Gorman diWulfe
Madelyn Corbeau
Opponent had:
Forward Kommaner Sorscha2
Greylord Ternion
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Maximum uit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment + 3x Rocketeers
Kayazy Eliminators
Kovnik Josef
War Dog
Epic Eiryss
That comes out as 34 points, as there was no suitable 1 point models to fill the last remaining point. Opponent didn't own Gobber Tinker or the infamous Speculator.
Scenario was Outflank, and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2, and what has happened so far is that Cryx just ran forwards, and Khador has Iron Flesh on Winterguard Infantry. Both players had a nasty bottleneck blocking early movement, but Khador had AoE's - and Cryx didn't.
Khador spread its forces all over the board. They were still close enought for Deneghra to get them all within her feat (well, except for Eliminators and last remaining Winterguards), but I didn't have too many options where I could place Deneghra to do that. Most notable thing probably was Eiryss shooting Reaper disrupted.
But turn 3 that was exactly what I did, anyway. I had decided to kill Beast-09 this turn, but those pesky Winterguards somehow found their way to block drag from Reaper. So before feat a Nightwretch advanced into position, and then Deneghra unleashed The Withering, followed by a Scourge on the winterguards and Beast-09. It was a direct hit even when Deneghra couldn't spare to boost the attack roll. Both winterguards died, and Deneghra cast Ghost Walk on the Reaper.
A Warwitch Siren uses Power Boost to give Reaper a focus point, and then Reaper advanced and dragged Beast-09 to its doom. And got to say... that warjack bond on epic Sorscha is rather nasty, since it's not tied to melee range. So it works even if Beast is knocked down. So Reaper became stationary.
Since it looked like I'd get a maximum of two Bane Thralls to charge Beast, Skarlock didn't bother to cast Ghost Walk on Bane Thralls. It cast Parasite on Beast instead. Bane Thralls charge/run, and in the end only one Bane Thrall makes it into melee with Beast. The other thrall missed a few critical, but quite clear millimetres.
All this took off Beasts open fist, and nothing else. Scared of what Beast might do next turn as I was, I ordered Gorman do lob Black Oil on Beast. So there was a huge blob of pretty damn useless metal right there. Beast-09 that was knocked down and blind, and Reaper and two Bane Thralls who were stationary and blinded.
A Warwitch Siren charged to kill a bear, but failed... or should we say that the bear succeeded at a Tough roll. At least she scored a hit and shadow bound the bear. And again I was terribly scared of Magic Skill [7] of the Ternion, whose POW from the sprays wouldn't be lowered by Deneghra's feat. Instead of charging or advancing and shooting, Black Ogruns just ran. One ran to engage one of the potential sprayers, and the rest formed a screen for Deneghra.
And when it was Khador turn I finally realised that all of my stress I had built up during both of these games had been for nothing. That frost bite spell spray is a special attack, which are spesifically forbidden by Deneghra's feat. Oh dear.
Next turn Sorscha casts Shatter Storm on Winterguard Infantry, advances and casts Cyclone, and uses her own feat. This was a grave mistake, when all of the stealth ignoring sprays weren't allowed. Only the rocketeers could try to injure focusless Deneghra with blast damage, but all two boosted RAT 3's missed DEF 12 Black Ogrun they were targeting. One of the deviating AoE's even had the arrogance to drift on Sorscha, and deal one point of damage to her. The unit itself blasted Reaper away in two Combined Ranged Attacks. Even during Deneghra's feat it isn't too difficult to hit a frozen, blinded heavy warjack.
Then Eiryss tried to come and shoot Deneghra, too, but even she missed.
At that point it was pretty much game over. Madelyn Corbeau advanced Gorman a little, and Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Gorman. Gorman then advanced and threw black oil on Sorscha. Black Ogruns did a combined melee attack on Sorscha and pulled her closer. Damage roll for the CRA was pretty high, so Deneghra had to just make one fully boosted attack to end the game.
But now is time for some butting!
Because I think it'd have been interesting to see how game would have developed, if it wasn't for the oversight of bringing Sorscha forward and then being unable to do much. In first game Khador had been able to shoot a lot of people dead(er) from my side before Deneghra used her feat. It's reasonable to assume that Reaper would have taken heavy damage from Winterguard even without Sorscha's feat, but perhaps the heavy wouldn't have been completely wrecked.
If I could have taken Beast and Eiryss down next turn and cast Crippling Grasp on Winter Guard to block the grapeshot sprays, Cryx would have still had a strong game even if my options at mass infantry removal were quite limited. Well, I guess getting rid of Beast was the least important of those three goals. Failing to kill Eiryss or missing Crippling Grasp on Winterguards would both have most probably spelled Deneghra's doom, since at least some boosted RAT 5 would have to hit DEF 16 Deneghra, and Winterguards would have been only dice -4 against her armor. With (or heck, possibly even without) Sorscha's feat there would have been a real chance for a casterkill.
Though of course if killing Eiryss of hitting with Crippling Grasp would have failed, I'd have blocked as much Winterguards as possible with the remainder of my forces. But hey, butting can go on forever. So I better stop now.
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